The present invention relates to a bill deposit/withdrawal machine (for example, an automated teller machine used in a banking organ or the like) for which a general user makes the deposit and withdrawal of a cash directly by use of a card, passbook or the like.
The conventional bill deposit/withdrawal machine used in, for example, a banking organ or the like is provided with a deposit/withdrawal port for delivering bills (or paper money) inputted by a user and accepting bills to be discharged to a user, a bill discriminating unit for discriminating bills, and a bill transport path for transporting bills while passing them through the bill discriminating unit. The construction of the machine further includes the combination of units including a temporary storage box for storing deposited bills once, a deposit box for accepting deposited bills, a withdrawal box for delivering bills for withdrawal, a recycle box for accepting and delivering bills for both deposit and withdrawal, a reject box for accepting bills which are transmitted from the withdrawal box, but not transmitted to the deposit/withdrawal port, a load/recovery box for delivering bills to be supplemented for the recycle box and accepting bills recovered from the recycle box, and so forth. Various constructions have been proposed for the arrangement of those units and the overall construction. For example, there has been proposed a complicated construction having a character xe2x80x9c8xe2x80x9d-configured transport path which includes two ring-like transport paths passing through the bill discriminating unit.
Three kinds of bills including a 1,000-yen bill, a 5,000-yen bill and a 10,000-yen bill are handled in Japanese territory. A bill deposit/withdrawal machine mounted with a recycle box capable of accepting 1,000-yen bills and 10,000-yen bills at a large capacity every that bill kind is popularly provided. However, only a small number of bill deposit/withdrawal machines is capable of coping with countries such as countries in Europe and America or countries in Southeast Asia where many kinds of bills are circulated. An example of a bill deposit/withdrawal machine capable of handling many kinds of bills has been disclosed by, for example, JP-A-7-267513. This known machine is provided with a deposit port, a withdrawal port, a bill discriminating unit (or bill discriminator), a reject box, and a plurality of recycle boxes for respective kinds of bills so that these units are connected by a bill transport path and the recycle boxes can additionally be provided in accordance with the number of handled bill kinds (see FIG. 19).
With the pervasion of bill deposit/withdrawal machines, there is an increasing need for smaller size, lower cost and more easiness in use while improved functions such as a recycle function of circulating deposited bills as bills for withdrawal and a load/recovery function of delivering bills to be supplemented for a recycle box and accepting bills recovered from the recycle box are ensured. Regarding bills to be handled, on the other hand, there is required a machine which can handle not only Japanese yen bills but also foreign bills with the increase of handling of foreign bills in the territory of Japan and the increase of a need for bill deposit/withdrawal machines outside the territory of Japan. Accordingly, it is desired to provide a bill deposit/withdrawal machine which can handle not only the deposit/withdrawal of two or three kinds of Japanese yen bills as in the prior art but also the deposit/withdrawal of many kinds of bills inclusive of Japanese yen bills and U.S. dollar bills and a bill deposit/withdrawal machine which can cope with the handling of five or more kinds of bills as in countries in Europe and America or countries in Southeast Asia.
Bills circulated in countries in Europe and America or countries in Southeast Asia comprise many kinds. Also, in many cases, the bills have their sizes which are greatly different in both longitudinal and lateral directions in accordance with the kinds of bills. Further, when seen from the circulating situation of bills in each country, the conditions of many bills including the degrees of fold and breaking are poor as compared with those of Japanese yen bills. This type of machine is requested to operate for a whole day in an unmanned manner at an automated-machine corner of a banking organ and to operate with a high reliability for the user""s cash deposit/withdrawal transaction. Also, it is desired to provide a bill deposit/withdrawal machine in which a failure such as a paper or bill jam is reduced to cope with the circulating situation of bills in each country.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a bill deposit/withdrawal machine in which a transaction operation based on the types of transactions or the kinds of bills can be set in accordance with mounted accepting boxes.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a bill deposit/withdrawal machine in which the number of accepting boxes can be increased or decreased.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a bill deposit/withdrawal machine which has a simplified bill transport path construction.
A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a bill deposit/withdrawal machine in which an improved operability is offered in conjunction with the handling of bill boxes by a clerk in charge and an operation performed by the clerk in charge at the time of generation of an abnormal condition such as a bill jam.
A fifth object of the present invention is to provide a bill deposit/withdrawal machine which has a high general-purpose ability.
To attain the above object, one aspect of the present invention provides a bill deposit/withdrawal machine for which a plurality of detachable accepting boxes for accepting bills can be mounted, wherein the accepting box includes at least one of a deposit box for accepting deposited bills, a withdrawal box for accepting bills for withdrawal, a recycle box for accepting bills for both deposit and withdrawal, a reject box for accepting deposited bills which are not accepted into the deposit box and the recycle box and those ones bills delivered from the withdrawal box and the recycle box which are not used for withdrawal, and a load/recovery box for delivering bills to the recycle box or accepting bills recovered from the recycle box, and setting means for setting a transaction operation based on the types of transactions or the kinds of bills in accordance with the mounting state of the accepting boxes is provided.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bill deposit/withdrawal machine comprising a deposit/withdrawal port for delivering bills inputted by a user and discharging bills for deposit return (or bills to be returned as deposit rejection) and bills for withdrawal to a user, a bill discriminating unit for discriminating bills, a plurality of accepting boxes for accepting a plurality of bills in a manner stacked in a horizontal direction, the accepting boxes being detachable in the horizontal direction, and a bill transport path for transporting bills between the accepting boxes and the deposit/withdrawal port while passing the bills through the bill discriminating unit, wherein the plurality of accepting boxes are stack-layered in a vertical direction while the deposit/withdrawal port, and the bill discriminating unit and the bill transport path are arranged at positions different from an upper space in the vertical direction in which the accepting boxes are stack-layered, whereby the accepting boxes and the bill transport path to the accepting boxes can be increased or decreased in number in the vertical direction.